The Best Way for HR to Track Time Off Requests (Using One Tool!)

Small and large company alike, keeping track of Paid Time Off for all employees can be an unnecessary hassle. Jumping in and out of individual calendars, emails and spreadsheets to keep track of who is in attendance on which days is not only time consuming, but can lead to mistakes being made. Having a solid tool in place to track time off requests will eliminate HR and employee frustration.

Using a cloud-based ServiceNow solution, you can streamline company paid time off processes into a single easy-access, desktop- and mobile-enabled platform. The Time Off Tracker Application provides a platform for all employees to submit a request for time off. The Administrator of the app can simply designate various time-off categories and policies within their organization and appoint them to employees accordingly.

An end user, generally and employee, can submit a new request, update or cancel a submitted request through a ServiceNow Web feature titled “Time Off Request” accessible in the HR Catalog module under the Self-Service application. All submitted requests are then sent to the user’s manager for approval. Upon approval, an HR Case is generated allowing the Human Resources Department to monitor status.

Key Features

Automatic calculation of available time-off upon Approval.

Email Notifications to user, Manager, and HR group at various levels.

Users can view their available time-off and previously requested time off.

Users can cancel/update submitted time off requests.

Flexibility to change policy assigned to a specific user.

On change of policy, deactivation of former records associated with that policy with respect to that employee in EMP TOT Definition.

Employees appreciate consistency in their paid time off requests. With this solution, management can make approvals from anywhere at any hour. This application also provides a feature to send out email notifications to employees and their managers regarding the approval status of a request.

“I like the portal because of how easy it is to use. Three buttons and my PTO request is sitting in my manager’s e-mail.”

–Michael Morrisey, Sr. Technical Recruiter

During a case study, a multinational corporation that specializes in outsourced software development and mobile application development for businesses saw an improvement of 70% in time-saving for submittals and management of time off requests in comparison previous paper methods. Outside of management satisfaction, employees expressed fulfillment from being able to view their history and current benefits all in one location.

Not all system processes need to be complicated. Jumping in and out of calendars, emails and spreadsheets is old news. Utilizing a solid tool- ServiceNow cloud-based solution to track time off requests eliminates HR and employee frustration and is manageable from almost anywhere 24/7.